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78-781: The predecessor of the Qapqal News , the Sulfan Jilgan (Xibe: ᠰᡠᠯᡫᠠᠨ ᡪᡞᠯᡤᠠᠨ ; Chinese: 苏尔凡吉尔干 ; pinyin: Sū'ěrfán Jí'ěrgàn ; lit. 'Voice of Freedom'), was founded in July 1946 in Yining during the reign of the East Turkestan Republic . In 1954, it changed its name to Ice Banjin (Xibe: ᡞᠴᡝ ᠪᠠᠨᡪᡞᠨ ; Chinese: 伊车班津 ; pinyin: Yīchē Bānjīn ; lit. 'New Life News'). The paper moved its offices to its present location in

156-680: A Fenghua county officer Ma Chengde ( 馬称德 ) in Zhejiang, made 100,000 wooden movable types and printed the 43-volume Daxue Yanyi ( 《大學衍義》 ). Wooden movable types were used continually in China. Even as late as 1733, a 2300-volume Wuying Palace Collected Gems Edition ( 《武英殿聚珍版叢書》 ) was printed with 253,500 wooden movable types on order of the Qianlong Emperor , and completed in one year. A number of books printed in Tangut script during

234-426: A Yuan dynasty governmental official of Jingde County , Anhui Province , China, re-invented a method of making movable wooden types. He made more than 30,000 wooden movable types and printed 100 copies of Records of Jingde County ( 《旌德縣志》 ), a book of more than 60,000 Chinese characters . Soon afterwards, he summarized his invention in his book A method of making moveable wooden types for printing books . Although

312-432: A laser printer and two fax machines . Yining City Yining ( Chinese : 伊宁 ), also known as Ghulja ( Uyghur : غۇلجا ) or Kulja ( Kazakh : قۇلجا ), is a county-level city in northwestern Xinjiang , China. It is the administrative seat and largest city of Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture . Historically, Yining is the successor to the ruined city of Almaliq in neighbouring Huocheng County . Yining

390-554: A "territory in north-west China" bounded by the Russian border and the mountains that surround the Ili basin. It also talks about two major cities of the region: Until the 1860s, Huiyuan to the south of Suiding was the regional capital. The fort of Ningyuan ( 寧遠城 ) was built in 1762 to accommodate new settlers from southern Xinjiang . The forts of Huining ( 惠寧城 ) and Xichun ( 熙春城 ) built later in 1765 and 1780 were also located within

468-436: A body of text being reproduced with reusable characters: it may have been produced by pressing pre-formed hieroglyphic "seals" into the soft clay. A few authors even view the disc as technically meeting all definitional criteria to represent an early incidence of movable-type printing. Bones, shells, bamboo slips, metal tablets, stone tablets, silk, as well as other materials were previously used for writing. However, following

546-778: A book in the Song dynasty documented how to use the copper movable type. The oldest extant book printed with movable metal type , Jikji , was printed in Korea in 1377 during the Goryeo dynasty. The spread of both movable-type systems was, to some degree, limited to primarily East Asia. The creation of the printing press in Europe may have been influenced by various sporadic reports of movable type technology brought back to Europe by returning business people and missionaries to China. Some of these medieval European accounts are still preserved in

624-597: A drawer about 2 inches high, a yard wide, and about two feet deep, with many small compartments for the various letters and ligatures. The most popular and accepted of the job case designs in America was the California Job Case , which took its name from the Pacific coast location of the foundries that made the case popular. Traditionally, the capital letters were stored in a separate drawer or case that

702-411: A large body of Standard Chinese loanwords in the spoken language; many younger readers lack familiarity with the older Manchu words. The editors of the Qapqal News thus worry that their desire to reach the widest audience possible conflicts with their role as a guardian of the standard language and of Manchu culture in general. The current editor-in-chief, Iktan ( 伊克坦 , Yīkètǎn ), is a graduate of

780-428: A metal movable type system. Gutenberg, as a goldsmith , knew techniques of cutting punches for making coins from moulds. Between 1436 and 1450 he developed hardware and techniques for casting letters from matrices using a device called the hand mould . Gutenberg's key invention and contribution to movable-type printing in Europe, the hand mould, was the first practical means of making cheap copies of letterpunches in

858-533: A preponderating majority, Kulja would not be a bit farther advanced than either Yarkand or Aksu . The principal trades are the following:— founders, manufacturing kettles, plates, and other implements of a very primitive form; paper-makers, whose productions do not seem to be superior to the paper manufactured at the present time after Chinese patterns at Khokand and Samarkand . There are, moreover, some confectionaries in which cakes of all shapes are baked of rice and millet, overlaid with sugar; also maccaroni-makers,

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936-592: A single page, movable type printing allowed for the quick assembly of a page of text. Furthermore, these new, more compact type fonts could be reused and stored. Wang Zhen used two rotating circular tables as trays for laying out his type. The first table was separated into 24 trays in which each movable type was categorized based on a number corresponding with a rhyming pattern. The second table contained miscellaneous characters. The set of wafer-like metal stamp types could be assembled to form pages, inked, and page impressions taken from rubbings on cloth or paper. In 1322,

1014-544: A surface by rolling the seal on wet clay. Seals and stamps may have been precursors to movable type. The uneven spacing of the impressions on brick stamps found in the Mesopotamian cities of Uruk and Larsa , dating from the 2nd millennium BC , has been conjectured by some archaeologists as evidence that the stamps were made using movable type. The enigmatic Minoan Phaistos Disc of c.  1800 –1600 BC has been considered by one scholar as an early example of

1092-472: A trough level with fine sandy [clay] of the reed-growing seashore. Wood-cut letters are pressed into the sand, then the impressions become negative and form letters [moulds]. At this step, placing one trough together with another, one pours the molten bronze down into an opening. The fluid flows in, filling these negative moulds, one by one becoming type. Lastly, one scrapes and files off the irregularities, and piles them up to be arranged. A potential solution to

1170-540: Is a printed "check" of the Jin dynasty with two square holes for embedding two bronze movable-type characters, each selected from 1,000 different characters, such that each printed paper note has a different combination of markers. A copper-block printed note dated between 1215 and 1216 in the collection of Luo Zhenyu 's Pictorial Paper Money of the Four Dynasties , 1914, shows two special characters—one called Ziliao ,

1248-416: Is now firmly established, and that Chinese-Korean technique, or a report of it traveled westward is almost certain." However, Joseph P. McDermott claimed that "No text indicates the presence or knowledge of any kind of Asian movable type or movable type imprint in Europe before 1450. The material evidence is even more conclusive." Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz , Germany, invented the printing press , using

1326-470: Is one of Xinjiang's most important museums. In fact, at the time it opened it became, in the words of a Western scholar, the "only modern museum" in Xinjiang. (Xinjiang of course also has the provincial museum in Ürümqi ; but at that time point, its old building had been demolished, while its replacement was still under construction). The museum houses archaeological and ethnological artefacts from throughout

1404-557: Is the third largest city in Xinjiang after Ürümqi and Korla . The city of Yining is a county-level administrative unit located along Ili River . As of 2015, it has an estimated population of 542,507, with a total land area of 629 km (243 sq mi). It is the most populous city in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture . The land area and population of the City of Yining saw an increase in 2003;

1482-493: The Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture contributed ¥150,000 (US$ 24.000) in 2002 to upgrade the newspaper's printing facilities. A further governmental contribution of ¥800,000 (US$ 170.000) in 2007 enabled the newspaper to upgrade its aging equipment: new equipment they purchased included a hectography machine, a scanner , industrial staplers and paper cutting machines, a blade sharpener, three digital cameras , two digital video cameras , nine computers, two multifunction printers ,

1560-534: The Minzu University of China ; aside from Xibe, he also speaks Chinese, Uyghur, Kazakh and Russian . He began working for the Ice Banjin in 1958 and took over as editor-in-chief of the Qapqal News in 1985. The paper has a total staff of 25 people; however, all but two lack a formal journalism education background and 20 only have a middle-school or lower educational background. From 1946 to 1954,

1638-731: The Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County in 1956. It was forced to stop publication in June 1966, during the Cultural Revolution , but was revived under its present name in October 1974, and has been in continuous operation since then. From about 300 copies in the 1970s when it was revived, the circulation of the Qapqal News grew to about 1,300 by 2007. It now comes out twice a week. Of the subscribers, about 500 are government organisations, twenty are enthusiasts of

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1716-577: The Western Xia (1038–1227) period are known, of which the Auspicious Tantra of All-Reaching Union , which was discovered in the ruins of Baisigou Square Pagoda in 1991 is believed to have been printed sometime during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Western Xia (1139–1193). It is considered by many Chinese experts to be the earliest extant example of a book printed using wooden movable type. At least 13 material finds in China indicate

1794-455: The Dutch governmental Algemeene Landsdrukkerij , later: "State-printery" ( Staatsdrukkerij ) decided during a reorganisation to use a standard type-height of 63 points Didot. Staatsdrukkerij-hoogte , actually Belgium-height, but this fact was not widely known . Modern, factory-produced movable type was available in the late 19th century. It was held in the printing shop in a job case ,

1872-603: The Manchu language which few besides Xibe people can read and write anymore; Manchu proper is nearly extinct , with the last native speakers as of 2007 believed to be 18 octogenerian residents of the village of Sanjiazi near Qiqihar in Northern Heilongjiang . The problem is that the Xibe language exhibits increasing diglossia , with the old Manchu terminology in the standard written language being replaced by

1950-678: The Mongol language, some with Chinese words printed between the pages—strong evidence that the books were printed in China. During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Hua Sui in 1490 used bronze type in printing books. In 1574 the massive 1000-volume encyclopedia Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era ( 《太平御覧》 ) was printed with bronze movable type. In 1725 the Qing dynasty government made 250,000 bronze movable-type characters and printed 64 sets of

2028-575: The Netherlands: Johan Enschedé & Zonen , at Haarlem , and Lettergieterij Amsterdam, voorheen Tetterode . They both had their own type-height: Enschedé: 65 23/24 points Didot, and Amsterdam: 66 1/24 points Didot—enough difference to prevent a combined use of fonts from the two typefoundries: Enschede would be too light, or otherwise the Amsterdam-font would print rather bold. This was a way of keeping clients. In 1905

2106-659: The Ningyuan County was established. The Geographical Magazine in 1875 by Sir Clements Robert Markham stated: What little industry Kulja possesses is all due to the Chinese, who transplanted the taste for art, assiduity and skilfulness of their pigtailed race, even to these western outskirts of "the celestial flowery dominion of the Middle." Had the Taranjis and Kalmuks been left to themselves, or had they remained in

2184-595: The Ningyuan County was renamed Yining County to avoid confusion with other places in China named Ningyuan . Yining became a separate city from Yining County in 1952. In 1962, major Sino-Soviet clashes took place along the Ili River . In 1997, in what came to be known as the Gulja Incident or massacre, the city was rocked by two days of demonstrations or riots followed by a Chinese Communist Party government crackdown resulting in at least 9 deaths following

2262-526: The Song dynasty through the Qing dynasty. Bi Sheng (990–1051) of the Song dynasty also pioneered the use of wooden movable type around 1040 AD, as described by the Chinese scholar Shen Kuo (1031–1095). However, this technology was abandoned in favour of clay movable types due to the presence of wood grains and the unevenness of the wooden type after being soaked in ink. In 1298, Wang Zhen ( 王禎 ),

2340-737: The Taranjis being notoriously very fond of dried farinaceous food. In Eastern Turkistan there still exist many similar trades, and although their products are not equal to European articles of the same kind—I mean here the fabrics of the formerly western Chinese provinces— they are still said to be profitable. Finally among the tradesmen we may mention millers, vinegar manufacturers and potters. The number of factories amount to-day at Kulja to 38, wherein over 131 hands are occupied. To this of course other tradespeople have to be added, such as 169 boot-makers, 50 blacksmiths, 48 carpenters, 11 brass-founders, 3 silversmiths, 26 stone-cutters, and 2 tailors. In 1914,

2418-514: The West consists of three stages: The type-height varied in different countries. The Monotype Corporation Limited in London UK produced moulds in various heights: A Dutch printer's manual mentions a tiny difference between French and German Height: Tiny differences in type-height can cause quite bold images of characters. At the end of the 19th century there were only two typefoundries left in

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2496-491: The Xibe and Manchu languages and develop further fonts, input methods and related software, as well as write and submit standards documents, with the aid of a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China . Initial versions of the software were unsatisfactory because they only supported three typefaces and so the editors continue to wait for further development. The government of

2574-439: The blocks had a limited lifespan. Gutenberg and his associates developed oil-based inks ideally suited to printing with a press on paper, and the first Latin typefaces . His method of casting type may have differed from the hand-mould used in subsequent decades. Detailed analysis of the type used in his 42-line Bible has revealed irregularities in some of the characters that cannot be attributed to ink spread or type wear under

2652-503: The casting, causing variants and anomalies, and that the punch-matrix system came into use possibly around the 1470s. This raises the possibility that the development of movable type in the West may have been progressive rather than a single innovation. Gutenberg's movable-type printing system spread rapidly across Europe, from the single Mainz printing press in 1457 to 110 presses by 1480, with 50 of them in Italy . Venice quickly became

2730-416: The centre of typographic and printing activity. Significant contributions came from Nicolas Jenson , Francesco Griffo , Aldus Manutius , and other printers of late 15th-century Europe. Gutenberg's movable type printing system offered a number of advantages over previous movable type techniques. The lead-antimony-tin alloy used by Gutenberg had half the melting temperature of bronze, making it easier to cast

2808-464: The characters were cut in relief, completely differently from those cut intaglio. When printing, the bulging characters would have some ink spread on them and be covered by paper. With workers' hands moving on the back of paper gently, characters would be printed on the paper. By the Song dynasty , woodblock printing came to its heyday. Although woodblock printing played an influential role in spreading culture, there were some significant drawbacks. Carving

2886-463: The city receives 2,834 hours of bright sunshine annually. Extremes since 1951 have ranged from −40.4 °C (−40.7 °F) on 29 January 1969 to 39.2 °C (102.6 °F) on 30 July 2024. The administrative divisions of Yining include eight subdistricts , 4 towns , and 5 townships : (thousand) km2 The city's nominal GDP was approximately 20.9 billion RMB (US$ 3.1 billion) as of 2015 with an annual increase of 7.6%.The nominal GDP per capita

2964-505: The closely related Manchu language in places as varied as Shenyang , Beijing , Hubei , Guizhou , Sichuan , and a dozen other provinces, and the remainder are local Xibe people, mostly those in rural areas. It is sold at retail for ¥ 0.09, or at a full-year subscription price of ¥9. Their full-year revenue is thus only around ¥10,000; the county government gives them a subsidy to cover roughly ¥30,000 of annual paper and printing costs and ¥3,000 of salaries paid to reporters. In 2017

3042-492: The east; across the river in the south is Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County . Yining (Gulja) has a semi-arid climate ( Köppen BSk ), without the strong variation in seasonal precipitation seen across most of China. Dry and sunny weather dominates year-round. Winters are cold, with a January average of −8.8 °C (16.2 °F). Yet the influence of the Dzungarian Alatau to the northwest and Borohoro Mountains to

3120-425: The encyclopedic Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China ( 《古今圖書集成》 ). Each set consisted of 5,040 volumes, making a total of 322,560 volumes printed using movable type. In 1234 the first books known to have been printed in metallic type set were published in Goryeo dynasty Korea. They form a set of ritual books, Sangjeong Gogeum Yemun , compiled by Ch'oe Yun-ŭi . While these books have not survived,

3198-541: The execution of 30 Uyghur activists. Yining is located on the northern side of the Ili River in the Dzungarian basin, about 70 km (43 mi) east of the border with Kazakhstan and about 710 km (440 mi) west of Ürümqi . The Ili River valley is far wetter than most of Xinjiang and has rich grazing land. The City of Yining borders on Huocheng County in the west and the Yining County in

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3276-429: The focus was on reprinting Chinese classics lost in 1126 when Korea's libraries and palaces had perished in a conflict between dynasties. Scholarly debate and speculation has occurred as to whether Eastern movable type spread to Europe between the late 14th century and early 15th centuries. For example, authoritative historians Frances Gies and Joseph Gies claimed that "The Asian priority of invention movable type

3354-572: The globe . The 19th-century invention of hot metal typesetting and its successors caused movable type to decline in the 20th century. The technique of imprinting multiple copies of symbols or glyphs with a master type punch made of hard metal first developed around 3000 BC in ancient Sumer . These metal punch types can be seen as precursors of the letter punches adapted in later millennia to printing with movable metal type. Cylinder seals were used in Mesopotamia to create an impression on

3432-406: The idea of losing hanja , the badge of their elitism", stifled the adoption of the new alphabet. A " Confucian prohibition on the commercialization of printing" also obstructed the proliferation of movable type, restricting the distribution of books produced using the new method to the government. The technique was restricted to use by the royal foundry for official state publications only, where

3510-404: The increase resulted from the transfer of two villages with some 100 km (39 sq mi) of land from the adjacent Yining County , which is a separate administrative unit from the city. Yining's population is primarily Uyghur , Han , Hui , and Kazakh , along with smaller numbers of people of Mongolian , Xibe , Uzbek , Russian , or other ethnicity. From the 13 to 15th century it

3588-659: The invention of paper during the Chinese Han dynasty , writing materials became more portable and economical. Yet, copying books by hand was still labour-consuming. Not until the Xiping Era (172–178 AD), towards the end of the Eastern Han dynasty, did sealing print and monotype appear. These were used to print designs on fabrics and to print texts. By about the 8th century during the Tang dynasty , woodblock printing

3666-569: The invention of bronze movable type printing in China no later than the 12th century, with the country producing large-scale bronze-plate-printed paper money and formal official documents issued by the Jin (1115–1234) and Southern Song (1127–1279) dynasties with embedded bronze metal types for anti-counterfeit markers. Such paper-money printing might date back to the 11th-century jiaozi of Northern Song (960–1127). The typical example of this kind of bronze movable type embedded copper-block printing

3744-483: The iron plate. In this he placed the types, set close together. When the frame was full, the whole made one solid block of type. He then placed it near the fire to warm it. When the paste [at the back] was slightly melted, he took a smooth board and pressed it over the surface, so that the block of type became as even as a whetstone. For each character there were several types, and for certain common characters there were twenty or more types each, in order to be prepared for

3822-623: The library archives of the Vatican and Oxford University among many others. Around 1450, German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invented the metal movable-type printing press, along with innovations in casting the type based on a matrix and hand mould . The small number of alphabetic characters needed for European languages was an important factor. Gutenberg was the first to create his type pieces from an alloy of lead , tin , and antimony —and these materials remained standard for 550 years. For alphabetic scripts , movable-type page setting

3900-615: The linguistic and cultural bottleneck that held back movable type in Korea for 200 years appeared in the early 15th century—a generation before Gutenberg would begin working on his own movable-type invention in Europe—when Sejong the Great devised a simplified alphabet of 24 characters ( hangul ) for use by the common people, which could have made the typecasting and compositing process more feasible. But Korea's cultural elite, "appalled at

3978-518: The loss of the two copper movable types. Song dynasty bronze block embedded with bronze metal movable type printed paper money was issued on a large scale and remained in circulation for a long time. The 1298 book Zao Huozi Yinshufa ( 《造活字印書法》 ) by the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) official Wang Zhen mentions tin movable type, used probably since the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), but this

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4056-468: The materials used for the type, punch, matrix, mould and in method of making an impression. The techniques for bronze casting, used at the time for making coins (as well as bells and statues) were adapted to making metal type. The Joseon dynasty scholar Seong Hyeon (성현, 成俔, 1439–1504) records the following description of the Korean font-casting process: At first, one cuts letters in beech wood. One fills

4134-466: The medium of paper . The world's first movable type printing technology for paper books was made of porcelain materials and was invented around 1040 AD in China during the Northern Song dynasty by the inventor Bi Sheng (990–1051). The earliest printed paper money with movable metal type to print the identifying code of the money was made in 1161 during the Song dynasty. In 1193,

4212-404: The method described by Shen Kuo in his Dream Pool Essays , and printed his book Notes of The Jade Hall ( 《玉堂雜記》 ). The ceramic movable type was also mentioned by Kublai Khan 's counsellor Yao Shu , who convinced his pupil Yang Gu to print language primers using this method. The claim that Bi Sheng's clay types were "fragile" and "not practical for large-scale printing" and "short lived"

4290-638: The modern Yining City. The Sino-Russian Treaty of Kulja 1851 opened the area for trade. In 1864–66, the city suffered severely from fighting during the Dungan Revolt . The city and the rest of the Ili River basin were seized by the Russians in 1871 during Yakub Beg 's independent rule of Kashgaria . It was restored to the Chinese under the terms of the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881) . In 1888,

4368-412: The newspaper had to be written out by hand and mimeographed . In 1954, the paper was manually typeset using movable lead type , a practise which continued up until 2007. The editors had long hoped to move to digital typesetting and printing, but were delayed by lack of both software and hardware. Researcher Tungga Cingfu ( 佟加·庆夫 , Tóngjiā Qìngfū ) spent over ten years starting in 1994 to do research on

4446-520: The northeast helps keep the city warmer than more easterly locales on a similar latitude. Summers are hot, with a July average of 23.1 °C (73.6 °F). Diurnal temperature ranges tend to be large from April to October. The annual mean temperature is 8.98 °C (48.2 °F). With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 53% in December to 73% in August and September, sunshine is abundant and

4524-566: The oldest book existing in the world printed in metallic movable types is Jikji , printed in Korea in 1377. The Asian Reading Room of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., displays examples of this metal type. Commenting on the invention of metallic types by Koreans, French scholar Henri-Jean Martin described this as "[extremely similar] to Gutenberg's". However, Korean movable metal type printing differed from European printing in

4602-597: The other called Zihao —for the purpose of preventing counterfeiting; over the Ziliao there is a small character (輶) printed with movable copper type, while over the Zihao there is an empty square hole—apparently the associated copper metal type was lost. Another sample of Song dynasty money of the same period in the collection of the Shanghai Museum has two empty square holes above Ziliao as well as Zihou , due to

4680-430: The paper's own staff. Even the paper's own staff do not always write their articles in Xibe; sometimes, they write in Chinese, Uyghur or Kazakh and then translate it into Xibe later. The paper does not accept advertisements . The Qapqal News plays an important role in Xibe language planning and standardisation. The editors are highly conscious of their role as the modern caretakers not just of their own language but of

4758-540: The prefecture. Batul Mosque (for Uyghur people), Tatar Mosque (for Tatar people) and Shaanxi Grand Mosque (for Hui people) are considered the three main mosques in Ili. Movable type Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuation marks ) usually on

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4836-400: The pressure of the press. Scholars conjecture that the type pieces may have been cast from a series of matrices made with a series of individual stroke punches, producing many different versions of the same glyph. It has also been suggested that the method used by Gutenberg involved using a single punch to make a mould, but the mould was such that the process of taking the type out disturbed

4914-402: The price is ¥0.9 at retail or ¥90 at a full-year subscription. The newspaper's name is printed in four languages on its front page: Xibe, Chinese, Uyghur ( چاپچال گېزىت , Chapchal Gëzit ) and Kazakh ( چاپچال گازەت , Çapçal Gazet ). About 80% of its content consists of translated reports from China's official Xinhua News Agency and other wire services , with the remaining 20% written by

4992-468: The printing plate required considerable time, labour, and materials. It also was not convenient to store these plates and was difficult to correct mistakes. Bi Sheng ( 畢昇 ) (990–1051) developed the first known movable-type system for printing in China around 1040 AD during the Northern Song dynasty, using ceramic materials. As described by the Chinese scholar Shen Kuo (沈括) (1031–1095): When he wished to print, he took an iron frame and set it on

5070-413: The repetition of characters on the same page. When the characters were not in use he had them arranged with paper labels, one label for each rhyme-group, and kept them in wooden cases. If one were to print only two or three copies, this method would be neither simple nor easy. But for printing hundreds or thousands of copies, it was marvelously quick. As a rule he kept two forms going. While the impression

5148-460: The type and aided the use of reusable metal matrix moulds instead of the expendable sand and clay moulds. The use of antimony alloy increased hardness of the type compared to lead and tin for improved durability of the type. The reusable metal matrix allowed a single experienced worker to produce 4,000 to 5,000 individual types a day, while Wang Chen had artisans working 2 years to make 60,000 wooden types. Type-founding as practised in Europe and

5226-407: The vast quantities needed to print complete books, making the movable-type printing process a viable enterprise. Before Gutenberg, scribes copied books by hand on scrolls and paper, or print-makers printed texts from hand-carved wooden blocks. Either process took a long time; even a small book could take months to complete. Because carved letters or blocks were flimsy and the wood susceptible to ink,

5304-456: The water-based Chinese calligraphic ink well, and had an added disadvantage of uneven matching of the type which could sometimes result from the uneven changes in size of the type during the baking process. There has been an ongoing debate regarding the success of ceramic printing technology as there have been no printed materials found with ceramic movable types. However, it is historically recorded to have been used as late as 1844 in China from

5382-456: The wooden type was more durable under the mechanical rigors of handling, repeated printing wore down the character faces, and the types could only be replaced by carving new pieces. This system was later enhanced by pressing wooden blocks into sand and casting metal types from the depression in copper, bronze, iron or tin. This new method overcame many of the shortcomings of woodblock printing. Rather than manually carving an individual block to print

5460-758: Was approximately 38,805 RMB (US$ 5976). Yining is the chief city and the agricultural and commercial center of the Ili valley. It is an old commercial center trading in tea and cattle and it is still an agricultural area with extensive livestock raising. It has fruit orchards. Iron, coal and uranium are mined nearby. As of 2014, Yining had a population of 559,700. The city is inhabited by 38 ethnic groups, including 269,700 Uyghur people, 204,000 Han people, 26,200 Kazakhs and 39,600 Hui people, accounting for 48.19%, 36.45%, 4.68% and 7.08% of gross population respectively. Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture Museum, opened in Yining in 2004,

5538-488: Was being made from the one form, the type was being put in place on the other. When the printing of the one form was finished, the other was then ready. In this way the two forms alternated and the printing was done with great rapidity. After his death, the ceramic movable-type passed onto his descendants. In 1193, Zhou Bida , an officer of the Southern Song dynasty, made a set of clay movable-type method according to

5616-400: Was invented and worked as follows. First, the neat hand-copied script was stuck on a relatively thick and smooth board, with the front of the paper sticking to the board, the paper being so thin it was transparent, the characters showing in reverse distinctly so that every stroke could be easily recognized. Then, carvers cut away the parts of the board that were not part of the character, so that

5694-464: Was largely experimental. It was unsatisfactory due to its incompatibility with the inking process. But by the late 15th century these concerns were resolved and bronze type was widely used in Chinese printing. During the Mongol Empire (1206–1405), printing using movable type spread from China to Central Asia. The Uyghurs of Central Asia used movable type, their script type adopted from

5772-454: Was located above the case that held the other letters; this is why capital letters are called "upper case" characters while the non-capitals are "lower case". Compartments also held spacers, which are blocks of blank type used to separate words and fill out a line of type, such as em and en quads ( quadrats , or spaces. A quadrat is a block of type whose face is lower than the printing letters so that it does not itself print.). An em space

5850-594: Was quicker than woodblock printing . The metal type pieces were more durable and the lettering was more uniform, leading to typography and fonts . The high quality and relatively low price of the Gutenberg Bible (1455) established the superiority of movable type in Europe and the use of printing presses spread rapidly. The printing press may be regarded as one of the key factors fostering the Renaissance and, due to its effectiveness, its use spread around

5928-477: Was refuted by later experiments. Bao Shicheng (1775–1885) wrote that baked clay moveable type was "as hard and tough as horn"; experiments show that clay type, after being baked in an oven, becomes hard and difficult to break, such that it remains intact after being dropped from a height of two metres onto a marble floor. The length of clay movable types in China was 1 to 2 centimetres, not 2 mm, thus hard as horn. But similar to metal type, ceramic type did not hold

6006-422: Was the width of a capital letter "M"—as wide as it was high—while an en space referred to a space half the width of its height (usually the dimensions for a capital "N"). Individual letters are assembled into words and lines of text with the aid of a composing stick , and the whole assembly is tightly bound together to make up a page image called a forme , where all letter faces are exactly the same height to form

6084-554: Was under the control of Chagatai Khanate . Another Mongol empire—the Zunghar Khanate —established around Ili area. In the 19th and early 20th century, the word Kuldja (from Russian : Кульджа ) or Ghulja was often used in Russia and in the West as the name for the entire Chinese part of the Ili River basin as well as for its two main cities. The usage of 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica is fairly characteristic; it defines Kulja as

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